Are my extracurriculars bad for a top college?

Applying to College
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Hi everyone, I’m in the 2nd half of my junior year of high school, and I want to major in either electrical or computer engineering in college. My top 3 reach schools are Stanford, UC Berkeley and UT Austin. I’m worried that my extracurriculars are too lacking to get into a top college, especially since my grades are slightly dropping this year and I only started taking extracurriculars seriously a month or two ago. I know that in a previous post in another category I said that I had zero extracurriculars, but I was just afraid that colleges wouldn’t value my extracurriculars and just didn’t put them as a result. But here they are.

Here are important things about me:

  • Texas resident
  • 3.9 UW GPA
  • 1460 SAT
  • I go to a top private school, which is known to be very competitive (edited by moderator)
  • I have autism and ADHD (formally diagnosed with both at 13 years old)

Here are my extracurriculars:

  • School varsity track team: Joined in 9th grade. Fastest distance runner on the team, I hold my school records for the 800m and 1600m

  • School varsity XC team: Joined in 10th grade. Will be captain of my team for the 2026-2027 season. I also hold my school record for the 5000m run.

  • Speedcubing: I started speedcubing in 5th grade and still do it. I can solve the Rubik’s cube in 7-8 seconds on average and go to sanctioned competitions for it. I’m ranked top 200 all-time in the nation. I have podiumed/won in 11 regional competitions, and in 2025 I qualified for and competed in the WCA world championships, placing 90th out of 2000 competitors.

  • Autism organization: Since February of 2026, I am on the Experts by Experience board of Autism Community Network, an established autism support organization in San Antonio that has been around for 15 years. I am the first high school student to ever be part of their board. As a board member, I help the organization plan events and implement new programs. I also have been volunteering with this organization. I’ve only volunteered three times for a total of 11 hours, but I plan to become more involved in the next few months.

  • AI tool building: This is a relatively new activity for me, one that I only started last month. Using Python, I’m manually working on an AI executive functioning tool/to-do list for people with ADHD and autism, since I, myself, have autism and struggle with getting schoolwork done as a result (and I also know many other people with autism that struggle with getting work done). I’m not using AI to vibe code it. It’s a bit complex to explain here, but I’ve done research, and my tool, once completed, will be totally different from any existing AI executive functioning tool for neurodivergent people. My goal is to get 50 users by the end of the summer.

Another thing to note:
I care a LOT about the mental well-being of people with autism and ADHD. Anxiety and depression are extremely common among people of these neurotypes, and as someone officially diagnosed with autism and ADHD, I struggled with depression for my first two years of high school. Self-esteem issues are also common, since people with ADHD and autism (including me) heavily struggle to stay on top of work and their responsibilities. I struggled with low self-esteem throughout my first 2 years of high school. I turned in so many assignments late, I heavily procrastinated every single day, and there would be so many evenings where I wouldn’t get any work done at all. My GPA is only a 3.9 due to grade inflation. Due to my depression, I totally wasted my first 2 years of high school by scrolling on my phone, surfing the internet all day, and doing no extracurriculars that aligned with my engineering interests.
But at the start of 2026, I realized that I had to take smaller steps to improving myself and my productivity. Before, I always tried to go from chronic procrastinator to hardworking, perfect student overnight, and my motivation would only last for a few days. In January, I told myself that every day, I’d do one small thing outside my comfort zone. The small steps compounded, and I improved SO much as a result. I’m still not as productive as I’d like to be, but nowadays, every day, I consistently get a good amount of schoolwork done, which a lot better than 0 hours a day (how much I was working before.) My confidence increased, and my depression started to go away, and I started to care a lot about the mental health of autistic people. That’s why I’m building my AI tool and getting involved in autism organizations.

Sorry, that was a lot, and I could go on forever. But I feel that it is necessary to explain all of that to colleges to make up for my engineering extracurricular gap.

Match me to a computer/electrical engineering program: Junior in high school with ZERO extracurriculars [TX resident, 3.9 GPA, no rank, 1350 SAT]
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Your ECs are fine. Chances at schools with very low acceptance rates…not really possible. Just make sure you have a well varied list of college applications. First up…a sure thing for admission, that you like that is affordable. Build your list up from there.

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What is considered a “very low” acceptance rate?

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Anything 20% or less is a low acceptance rate, in my opinion.

Stanford, UC Berkeley and UT Austin

Stanford and Cal are reaches for sure. UT Austin is a reach if you aren’t in the top 5% of your graduation class in HS.

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Can you elaborate on this? I don’t quite get what you’re saying.

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The FIRST colleges you should find are ones where you are sure you will be accepted, that you like and are affordable for your family. Pick two of those colleges first. Bonus if any have rolling admissions so you get a decision quickly.

After you have your two sure things, THEN look at your reaches and other colleges. It’s easy to pick out those reach schools…so find your sure things…first, and then build your list up from there.

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Why would you say you had no extra curriculars when you had many? Honestly is important.

You are unlikely for all three schools - especially Stanford. UCB wont’ factor in your SAT.

Guess what - there are hundreds of FANTASTIC engineering schools - and most jobs pay by location/company - not where you went.

Your ECs won’t hold you back though - to answer your question.

But you need to find a college that:

  1. You can afford
  2. You know you’ll get into (Texas Tech, UTD and hundreds of others)

You should do an HONEST chance/match me - if you want feedback.

Good luck.

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Agree. Do a chance me/Match Me thread and answer every question on the template!

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As suggested before, you could choose one or more great engineering schools with early rolling admissions like Iowa State, Pitt, Minnesota, or Penn State, and see if you can get an early admission.

You could then apply anywhere else you like, and see what happens.

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I’m going to suggest that you edit your post to remove the name of your school. You are very easily identified with that and your xc/tf records.

You sound like you’re on a great path with your ECs and newly found passion for helping others (and helping others helps you, too!). Keep up the great work and you will have good choices next year!

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I think that your ECs are very good. It looks like you did what was right for you. This is exactly the right thing to do.

For engineering “prestige” really doesn’t matter (thus all the t-shirts and blue jeans). Whether whatever you design works does matter. You can do very well with a degree from any of a very wide range of universities. You can also get into top master’s degree programs (even at the Stanford level) with a bachelor’s degree from any of a very wide range of universities.

And your in-state universities are very good.

Put in the effort to keep your grades up, continue to participate in the ECs that make sense for you, make sure you apply to safeties, pay attention to your budget, and I expect that you will do very well.

Grades are the most important thing when it comes to university admissions.

Mental health is very important, and is an area where our modern civilization might not have made the same improvements that we have made in some other areas. I think that it is very good that you have made significant improvements in this area, and that you care about helping others.

This does however make me wonder whether the most stressful universities would be a good fit for you. Stanford or UC Berkeley (or MIT or Caltech) are a lot of work. Classes go fast. There is a lot of homework. Doing homework on a Saturday afternoon does happen sometime (and is something that I remember from graduate school at Stanford). The desire and ability to work very hard needs to come from inside the student themselves.

And you can do very well with an engineering degree from TAMU or UT Dallas or Texas Tech. These schools will not be easy either, but might be a small touch less stressful compared to Stanford or UC Berkeley (or MIT).

Another issue with engineering: Sometimes a student takes more than 4 years to graduate. If you attend an in-state public university, then if it takes 5 years to graduate then you are still in-state for the 5th year. This can help for example with budget, and may mean that family is nearby if this is needed at some point.

So in addition to keeping your grades up, and participating in the ECs that are right for you, you might want to also think about what sort of university would be the best fit for you.

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I like the combination and themes of your extras. Note 10 is the # on commonapp. Might be worth it for you to sign in and start thinking how you would group yours and whether you have enough once you start decoupling these activities/themes. Try to get your SATs up 40 points and make sure the math is 750+. Good luck!

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Your EC’s look fine to me. I love the cubing! I would not try to explain too much about your autism and ADHD. When you write essays, there is a free service here to help and you might want to take advantage of that.

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